Apple TV: Tips for Using Remotes

If you've got an Apple TV, there some important things to know about how to control your device when you're watching something. First, if you'd like to skip around in your show by chapter, you can do that by pressing the down button on the Apple Remote:

You can then use the right and left buttons on the remote to move forward and back one chapter at a time. If instead you're using the Remote app on your iOS device, swipe down on the screen first to pull up the chapter guides.

What? That's a swipe down, people.

Then just swipe your finger left or right to skip around in your media.

Note that if what you're watching doesn't have chapter markers (cough cough Netflix cough cough), the Apple TV will let you skip 30 seconds at a time or 1/20th of the length of the media, whichever is longer.

Additionally, there's a special menu you can access while your show is playing so that you can change speakers, jump ahead to a chapter by name (if available), or turn on closed captioning. You do that by pressing and holding the center (Select) button, which'll pause what you're playing and show you a lovely new menu for those options.

On the Remote app, there's a special button to access this, too:

Handy! I find this especially useful to quickly turn on closed captioning if I'm trying to keep the volume down late at night or if I'm having trouble understanding an actor through his accent. 

Finally, not everyone knows that you can use third-party remotes to control the Apple TV. To configure yours, go to Settings > General > Remotes on your Apple TV, and pick Learn Remote. You'll then walk through instructions for which buttons on your remote you'd like to use to control your device. For more information, check out Apple's support article on the subject

What say you, TMO readers? Do you have any favorite tricks for using the Apple TV?